Results
The Lunar Orbiter program consisted of five spacecraft which returned photography of 99 percent of the surface of the Moon (near and far side) with resolution down to 1 meter. Altogether the Orbiters returned 2180 high resolution and 882 medium resolution frames. The micro-meteoroid experiments recorded 22 impacts showing the average micro-meteoroid flux near the Moon was about two orders of magnitude greater than in interplanetary space, but slightly less than the near-Earth environment. The radiation experiments confirmed that the design of Apollo hardware would protect the astronauts from average and greater than average short term exposure to solar particle events. The use of Lunar Orbiters for tracking to evaluate the Manned Space Flight Network tracking stations and Apollo Orbit Determination Program was successful, with three Lunar Orbiters (2, 3, and 5) being tracked simultaneously from August to October 1967. The Lunar Orbiters were all eventually commanded to crash on the Moon before their attitude control fuel ran out so they would not present navigational or communications hazards to later Apollo flights. The Lunar Orbiter program was managed by NASA Langley Research Center at a total cost of roughly $200 million.
Below is the flight log information of the five Lunar Orbiter photographic missions:
- Lunar Orbiter 1
- Launched August 10, 1966
- Imaged Moon: August 18 to 29, 1966
- Impact with Moon: October 29, 1966
- Apollo landing site survey mission
- Lunar Orbiter 2
- Launched November 6, 1966
- Imaged Moon: November 18 to 25, 1966
- Impact with Moon: October 11, 1967
- Apollo landing site survey mission
- Lunar Orbiter 3
- Launched February 5, 1967
- Imaged Moon: February 15 to 23, 1967
- Impact with Moon: October 9, 1967
- Apollo landing site survey mission
- Lunar Orbiter 4
- Launched May 4, 1967
- Imaged Moon: May 11 to 26, 1967
- Impact with Moon: Approximately October 31, 1967
- Lunar mapping mission
- Lunar Orbiter 5
- Launched August 1, 1967
- Imaged Moon: August 6 to 18, 1967
- Impact with Moon: January 31, 1968
- Lunar mapping and hi-res survey mission
Read more about this topic: Lunar Orbiter Program
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